


Drifting Partners

by Vaporion79



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Braggvin, Friendship, Jaegers (Pacific Rim), M/M, Pacific Rim AU, RageHappy, achievement hunter - Freeform, soft feels mostly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-28
Updated: 2018-05-28
Packaged: 2019-05-14 20:46:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14776961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vaporion79/pseuds/Vaporion79
Summary: What started with a headcanon, became a full-blown one-shot fic for a friend!Let's say a British Jaeger user in training, has been having problems finding a partner to pilot an actual Jaeger with. And a few months later in comes a certain beardy American man with glasses and a streak of red in his hair, could he be Gav's new partner?Any constructive criticism is welcome! Cross-posted on my AH tumblr blog Splodey-Painter.





	Drifting Partners

Ok, so let’s say a British Jaeger user in training, has been having problems finding a partner to pilot an actual Jaeger with. He’s shockingly good at the simulations.

A few months later in comes a certain beardy American man, no one’s sure if you can wear glasses while piloting a jaeger but he’s done it. Matt is also a great candidate for finding a Drift partner. He and Gavin meet and it’s like they’ve known each other for years. So much so that they’re assigned together for a test Drift.

The Drift initiation and calibration begins smoothly, it’s looking up for these two boys and they’re excited. The jump into each other’s memories is both jarring and oddly welcoming. That is until Gavin begins to chase the rabbit. He’s clinging to a memory and it’s throwing off the calibration of the left and right hemispheres. 

It’s a memory he thought he’d long forgotten, locked away, hadn’t needed to think about again. Queue the GLaDOS voice announcing the failed drift and Matt unhooking both of them from the Jaeger because Gavin’s so stuck in the memory he’s not moving.

Matt’s bringing back to reality, scared because of each-other the look in Gavin’s eyes one of broken acceptance. He’s reliving the grim reality of something and it’s freaking Matt out because his buddy won’t respond. While trying to call him back he says something like “I was hoping we could pilot this thing together…” and Matt’s beginning to sound desperate. That’s what breaks Gavin out of the memory, some of that somber acceptance is lingering in his eyes but as soon as he’s back Gavin’s smiling at Matt as if they’re meeting again after each other for years.

Once out of the Jaeger they are given a warning and told they can try for another drift in a week. Gavin looks a mixture of ashamed/embarrassed and no one seems to notice but the commander and Matt. The commander takes Matt to the side and explains to Matt some of what he knows about what happened to Gavin (Matt couldn’t catch everything even in the drift), but the commander only fills in a few extra details because Gavin doesn’t say much of anything to anyone. It also says that if they fail the second drift they won’t be trying again as partners.

Matt goes to find Gavin in the lunch hall, he sees that he’s already nearly finished eating and quickly launches out of there when he spies Matt coming over to him once he’s gotten food for himself. Matt still sits to eat (albeit confused and a little hurt) and enter another, already paired jaeger team. It’s the Jones’s, Lindsay and Michael. Husband and wife who seemed all too perfect to be pilots of a very volatile and very heavy hitting Jaeger. They talk with Matt and Michael explains that Gavin will do that, the running and hiding, but Michael and Lindsey both know what happened to him and Matt asks but they’ve made a promise to Gavin to not tell anyone. Which leaves Matt frustrated but a little bit relieved because at least his partner hasn’t been entirely hiding away from everyone.

Now he’s armed with the fuel of knowledge (and apparently the reassurance from Lindsey that "our little Gavy’s really taken a liking to you”) he heads out to find him. He tries his room first, nothing. Not in the rec room, mechanical centre, research lab. It seems as though Matt’s nearly given up the search for the night when he thinks about some of the secret spots outside the carrier that Gavin told him about “sometimes I like to climb to these little spots when I’m in need of a breather.” And bloody hell can Gavin scramble up almost anything “I won’t be climbing one of those kaiju bastards that’s for sure” Matt remembers him saying.

And after a good half hour of searching every spot he can think of, the sun is beginning to make the sky orange when Matt tries the last spot. A bit of the brig near the front, a little above the commander’s office. Matt remembers Gavin mentioning this is his favourite spot for sitting in and he mentally slaps himself for not checking there first. And sure enough, there’s his boi. All curled up back to the climby hole and facing directly at the setting sun. There’s the sound of the ocean and smaller aircraft, and then the soft calling of “Gavin?” From Matt. Cautious to not spook the lad. No response to be tries again, now he’s out of the hole and on the same bit of metal just a few feet away from Gavin.

The Brit must have felt the tap of shoes on metal because he turns his head just enough that Matt catches the red and tiredness in his eyes. Which immediately Matt feels a small sting in his chest and questions. How long has he been up here, how long has Gavin been crying for, what was so bad that it made the lad bolt and hide for half a day? He calls out Gavin’s name again, still soft, and inches towards him finally settling beside him. He draws a knee up and grips it with his arms, face turned to Gavin’s to watch his expression.

“What you thinking about bud?” And Gavin’s response is to lift his head from his knees shrug, glancing at Matt again before talking.

“Feel stupid…”

“Stupid? What for?” Matt is both concerned and confused, it couldn’t have been because of the failed drift, could it? That was common amongst first-time Drifters though, so Matt wanted to rule that out.

“I fucked up our drift Matt. I bollocks’d it before we could calibrate!” Gavin squeezed his eyes shut and clenched his fists at the floor.

“But dude that’s.. that’s like the most common thing to happen when you first Drift for real! So you can’t hold yourself too badly for it!” Matt’s voice was understanding but laced with frustration, it slipped out here and there.

“But you were so excited to finally get a shot at piloting for real!” Gavin’s words tinted with desperate anger, “and I went and fucked it up! You were ready and I clearly wasn’t!” A sob followed his words, and Matt was not ready. He just looked on in pained silence and watched the outpouring of words from the lad beside him.

“It shouldn’t have been like that. I’m the best in my department, the best in simulations. I was an IDEAL candidate and I STILL screwed up…”

"And you were so excited” Gavin repeated,  
“You even said you hoped to pilot the Jaeger together…”

Gavin’s voice was the saddest and quietist with that last sentence, he sounded so defeated.  
“There’ll be another pilot better suited to you, Matt…”

"You’ll be happier the– OOf Matt?!” Gavin too wasn’t ready for it, the ‘it’ being a Matt pulling Gavin into a tight hug. One that clung to what felt like every fiber of his being.

“The fuck are you talking about "another pilot”?? And yeah I was excited to finally be piloting but I was excited to be doing it with you! I was excited to see you so happy!“ Matt was now on his own train of word vomit, mixed with his own flavour of "this fucking idiot needs some self-love Jesus Christ” which Matt found his own reasoning amusing to him.

“Just .. don’t give a fuck about others for a bit. Just be in the moment of your excitement. Because fuck if I said I don’t get even more pumped up when my teammate is happy then I’d be lying to the universe.” Now it was Gavin’s time to stare wordlessly, tears quietly falling at the praise from Matt, which he found difficulty accepting but took them because fuck, Matt was kinda right… No… He was absolutely right.. and it made him want to explain things to Matt.

They stared at each-other for a brief few more moments, taking in the emotions shared and the way each of them clung to different parts. Matt had left his hands near Gavin’s torso, while Gav had reflexly clung to Matt’s arms. He felt, comfier, calmer. They repositioned, now both facing a blazing orange sky and blue-orange sea, sat shoulder to shoulder, arms at their sides but somewhat crossed with each-others. The closeness kept Gavin grounded.

“That drift we did, wasn’t actually my first attempt…” Matt responded with an acknowledging “huh”. Gavin took a breath and continued,  
“My first drift was a few years ago, I was young and even more excited to finally get into one of those magnificent jaegers than I am now.” Gavin paused again and Matt waited, he squeezed whatever fingers overlapped with Gavin’s beside him.

“I was so excited, that I didn’t think too much of the pilot beside me. I just wanted to go! The calibration began and the drift was supposedly successful. My mind was going nuts, I’d made it! I’d finally made it. But it was too much.” Gav’s voice wobbled a little and he drew up his body a little, Matt responded by doing the same and tapping his knee to the other’s.

“I overrode the drift in a weird way, it fucked both me and the other pilot over, fried some circuitry. We both ended up in the med bay. It was only later that night I found out that the overload I caused had…” His voice caught on the words.

“It’s ok dude, take as much time as you need.” Matt nudged his knee again. Gavin shook his head and continued frantically,  
“I. I had caused the other pilot to need physical rehabilitation for a year before they could pilot again! While I got off Scott free!”

"I put my own happiness before another’s and look what happened Matt! I ruined a guys life!” Matt saw his reasoning  
“But you only put them out of commission for a year, right? It’s not like you killed them.” The morally greyer side of Matt always had a silver lining, to some effect.

“Yeah, but I coulda…. And I could have done the same to you…” Gavin shrank even more. 'Fuck’ Matt thought,

“Well, you just got stuck in your own head today. That’s ok, we can get through that together. Look, you were young and stupid, we all were once.” Matt wrapped an arm around Gavin, who leaned back into Matt.

“But that was then. And just because you’re the best doesn’t always mean you have to be the best every second. Just think of all the times a Jaeger has been at fault before.”

"What I’m trying to say is” and Matt paused to look down at Gavin, the orange of the sunset made the lad glow which made Matt’s heart swell a little.

“Something happened, but it’s a fixable something. And if you want, I’d be happy to help you in whatever way that was, starting with learning to let yourself be happy for yourself more often. Because believe me, letting other people decide when you’re happy sucks balls.” And the lad giggled, that sweet little chuckle signature to only Gavin. They didn’t speak for a bit after that, just sat together watching the sun go down. Then Gavin spoke after arguing with his internal monologue, while the sun was only a quarter left in view above the water.

“Hmm… alright then Matt, I’ll take you up on your offer.” And there was a playful tone to his voice,

"But only because,” Matt watched Gavin untangle himself and sit up on his toes, "I’m definitely faster at climbing than you!” His words enunciated with a playful jab to Matt’s chest and the start of a sprint from Gavin. Before long they were hauling after each-other back to the rec room, Gavin threatening to eat the snack Matt had hidden in one of the communal food boxes. Gavin’s answer didn’t make sense initially, but after some thought Matt concluded that that was Gavin’s way of telling him “ok, I’ll let you help”. Which was followed by his own confirmation that he too had taken a liking to the other lad.

It had been 6 months since their successful test Drift. And now Matt and Gavin had become one of the best-known teams in their British-American Jaeger “Jester Gold”.

Their first Kaiju together was met with immense celebration from back home, and another bond to their ever-growing friendship. As well as the title of "most stylish takedown of a Kaiju” (a title earned from the Kaiju groupies). Together, they felt as though they could take on anything.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! If you guys want you can follow me on my Tumblr @splodey-painter where I'm the most active about AH stuff.
> 
> And eventually I want to start getting some of my new AU stuff on here too (nothing to do with Pacific Rim).


End file.
